11/25/2012

Couponing Basics Part II

If you haven’t already read my “Basic Couponing Part I”
post, stop. Do not pass go, do not
collect $200.00. Read it here and follow
steps 1-3 at the end of the blog.

Now that we’re all up to speed, it’s time to start
couponing. What stores do you go to
regularly that aren’t too much of a hike from your house or place of work. Pick one as your initial coupon guinea pig. I am going to use Target for my example
because its coupon policy is really basic.
If you can navigate Target – you can add on little bits of knowledge to
attack some of the more challenging stores where you will have to use rewards
programs to enhance your savings. Start
small. You’ll be ready to add more
stores in no time, I promise.

Pull the coupon sections out of the Sunday papers you have
acquired so far. If you are getting the
Washington Post your coupons will actually come on Saturday with your arts and
magazine section. No coupons will be in
your Sunday issue. Place all the coupon
inserts from a particular week in a plastic sheet protector, write the
corresponding date on a post-it note or scrap
of paper and insert the date into the sleeve where you can easily see
it. Put all of your weekly plastic sheet
protectors in order by date. You now
have your couponer toolbelt. Are you
feeling kind of awesome? You should be.

Now is a good time to
mention that there are all kinds of ways to organize your coupons. The blogs I have mentioned will give you
alternative methods that you can use. If
they work better for you, go with it!
For me, being a naturally disorganized person, this method has been the
easiest, but we’re all wired differently – so check out the “how to” sections
on the blog(s) you follow and feel free to augment my instructions with what
you find there.

Now that you’ve got your coupons organized go to your blog
and click on the link for the store you have selected. Each blog will give you a really great
overview of how to coupon at that store.
At Target you can use a store coupon (one that is labeled Target) AND a
manufacturer’s (labeled Manufacturer) for each product. That means you could possibly use TWO coupons
for one item. This is often how the
savings add up.

Once you have read over your store’s coupon how-to policy at
your blog of choice you will need to check out the coupon “matchups” for your
current week. You may initially feel
like you are looking at gibberish, but don’t get scared. It’s really easy to decipher. Here is an example of what you might find:

TARGET – Please note that these are examples, not live deals. The links and coupon matchups are not
currently available.

Colgate Soft Extra Clean Toothbrush $0.94, regular
price

Use $0.50/1 – Colgate Manual Toothbrush, no more than 4
coupons for the same product in the same transaction – (coupons.com)
Final Price: $0.44

These two coupon matchups can
teach you the basic principles of couponing.
In the case of the Colgate Toothbrush – it’s on sale for a good price
$0.94. Not a bad price for a toothbrush
in and of itself, but our wonderful friends in the blogosphere have done their
research to tell us that there is also a coupon available for this
product. You can see that the coupon
described is underlined. If you were
looking at this on a blog – it would be a link to the page where you can print
this coupon. Just click and print. As an added bonus – you can print most
coupons twice which means you can get two toothbrushes for only $0.44. It’s great to have extra toothbrushes for
guests and travel kits.

The Knorr Homestyle Stock matchup
is an example of a situation where you get to use two coupons. You will need to cut your manufacturer’s
coupon from your Sunday paper using “RP11/11”
as your key. What is this strange
code you ask? It stands for “The Red
Plumb insert published in the November 11th paper”. There are usually a few different inserts
each week. The most common names for these
inserts are Smart Source, Red Plumb, and P&G. What’s great is that the blogs you follow
will tell you what week to look at and what insert to pull. It makes it a cinch to find the coupon you
are looking for. Cut the coupon and then
click on the link that leads to a coupon on the Target website. This will allow you to print a Store coupon
for the cooking stock. Use the Store
coupon along with the manufacturer’s coupon and you will save a total of $2.10,
leaving you with a great price

This is a VERY basic example of
couponing using store sales as your guide.
There are details and tips that relate to each store, and tricks of the
trade that you will need to learn along the way, but if you can follow the
coupon matches above, you understand the gist of how couponing works. I’ll discuss more “how-to’s” later, but
remember – take it slow. Couponing is a great tool for financial
freedom but you are likely not to commit to it if you get overwhelmed at first. Try a week of couponing at one store using the
matchups from one blog. Take this
challenge and if you like the results, we’ll dive in for more.

As a reminder, there are some
excellent coupon resources at the two blogs I described. They are essentially self-paced tutorials
teaching you how to coupon. In case you
are overwhelmed by any of the details and tactics involved I wanted to give you
a general overview of how this whole couponing things works. In summary, you can save a ton of money if
you use a basic organization system for your coupons and you use available
resources to match your coupons with store sales and specials. Wait till you get your first free item. You’ll be hooked.

Does this work? Absolutely.
Even when I only have minimal time to commit to couponing I can save
between 30 and 50% on a store trip. Has
couponing revolutionized your life too?

Comments

Couponing Basics Part II

If you haven’t already read my “Basic Couponing Part I”
post, stop. Do not pass go, do not
collect $200.00. Read it here and follow
steps 1-3 at the end of the blog.

Now that we’re all up to speed, it’s time to start
couponing. What stores do you go to
regularly that aren’t too much of a hike from your house or place of work. Pick one as your initial coupon guinea pig. I am going to use Target for my example
because its coupon policy is really basic.
If you can navigate Target – you can add on little bits of knowledge to
attack some of the more challenging stores where you will have to use rewards
programs to enhance your savings. Start
small. You’ll be ready to add more
stores in no time, I promise.

Pull the coupon sections out of the Sunday papers you have
acquired so far. If you are getting the
Washington Post your coupons will actually come on Saturday with your arts and
magazine section. No coupons will be in
your Sunday issue. Place all the coupon
inserts from a particular week in a plastic sheet protector, write the
corresponding date on a post-it note or scrap
of paper and insert the date into the sleeve where you can easily see
it. Put all of your weekly plastic sheet
protectors in order by date. You now
have your couponer toolbelt. Are you
feeling kind of awesome? You should be.

Now is a good time to
mention that there are all kinds of ways to organize your coupons. The blogs I have mentioned will give you
alternative methods that you can use. If
they work better for you, go with it!
For me, being a naturally disorganized person, this method has been the
easiest, but we’re all wired differently – so check out the “how to” sections
on the blog(s) you follow and feel free to augment my instructions with what
you find there.

Now that you’ve got your coupons organized go to your blog
and click on the link for the store you have selected. Each blog will give you a really great
overview of how to coupon at that store.
At Target you can use a store coupon (one that is labeled Target) AND a
manufacturer’s (labeled Manufacturer) for each product. That means you could possibly use TWO coupons
for one item. This is often how the
savings add up.

Once you have read over your store’s coupon how-to policy at
your blog of choice you will need to check out the coupon “matchups” for your
current week. You may initially feel
like you are looking at gibberish, but don’t get scared. It’s really easy to decipher. Here is an example of what you might find:

TARGET – Please note that these are examples, not live deals. The links and coupon matchups are not
currently available.

Colgate Soft Extra Clean Toothbrush $0.94, regular
price

Use $0.50/1 – Colgate Manual Toothbrush, no more than 4
coupons for the same product in the same transaction – (coupons.com)
Final Price: $0.44

These two coupon matchups can
teach you the basic principles of couponing.
In the case of the Colgate Toothbrush – it’s on sale for a good price
$0.94. Not a bad price for a toothbrush
in and of itself, but our wonderful friends in the blogosphere have done their
research to tell us that there is also a coupon available for this
product. You can see that the coupon
described is underlined. If you were
looking at this on a blog – it would be a link to the page where you can print
this coupon. Just click and print. As an added bonus – you can print most
coupons twice which means you can get two toothbrushes for only $0.44. It’s great to have extra toothbrushes for
guests and travel kits.

The Knorr Homestyle Stock matchup
is an example of a situation where you get to use two coupons. You will need to cut your manufacturer’s
coupon from your Sunday paper using “RP11/11”
as your key. What is this strange
code you ask? It stands for “The Red
Plumb insert published in the November 11th paper”. There are usually a few different inserts
each week. The most common names for these
inserts are Smart Source, Red Plumb, and P&G. What’s great is that the blogs you follow
will tell you what week to look at and what insert to pull. It makes it a cinch to find the coupon you
are looking for. Cut the coupon and then
click on the link that leads to a coupon on the Target website. This will allow you to print a Store coupon
for the cooking stock. Use the Store
coupon along with the manufacturer’s coupon and you will save a total of $2.10,
leaving you with a great price

This is a VERY basic example of
couponing using store sales as your guide.
There are details and tips that relate to each store, and tricks of the
trade that you will need to learn along the way, but if you can follow the
coupon matches above, you understand the gist of how couponing works. I’ll discuss more “how-to’s” later, but
remember – take it slow. Couponing is a great tool for financial
freedom but you are likely not to commit to it if you get overwhelmed at first. Try a week of couponing at one store using the
matchups from one blog. Take this
challenge and if you like the results, we’ll dive in for more.

As a reminder, there are some
excellent coupon resources at the two blogs I described. They are essentially self-paced tutorials
teaching you how to coupon. In case you
are overwhelmed by any of the details and tactics involved I wanted to give you
a general overview of how this whole couponing things works. In summary, you can save a ton of money if
you use a basic organization system for your coupons and you use available
resources to match your coupons with store sales and specials. Wait till you get your first free item. You’ll be hooked.

Does this work? Absolutely.
Even when I only have minimal time to commit to couponing I can save
between 30 and 50% on a store trip. Has
couponing revolutionized your life too?